


Over the Sea of Sunken Eyes

by weasleytook



Category: Big Bang Theory
Genre: Apocalypse, Death, F/M, Future Fic, Romance, Violence, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-26
Updated: 2010-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:57:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleytook/pseuds/weasleytook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years, miles from Pasadena and no longer the physicist and the waitress, Sheldon and Penny have found new careers as zombie hunters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over the Sea of Sunken Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [damalur](https://archiveofourown.org/users/damalur/gifts).



> For the stupendously amazing and wonderful [](http://damalur.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://damalur.livejournal.com/)**damalur** , I am so sorry this is late but I do hope it was worth the wait. I cannot thank you enough for your AMAZING prompts. This was the first one that I just HAD to write, but I seriously want to write the other two soon because they are just that brilliant. I hope you had a merry Saturnalia and thank you SO much for giving me the gift of your wonderful prompt.
> 
> Thanks to d_sieya for being my sounding board in the plotting phase, to ishie for the fixes & ego boost and to akitron, menacherie & coldwrapped for reading with such enthusiasm!

_“Aim for the lungs so you can get it in one shot. If you don’t kill it with one bullet, it will run away and this will all have been a waste of time.”_

_“I know, dad. This is the fifteenth time you’ve told me this today.”_

_Penny rolled her eyes and popped her gum loudly. Too loudly._

_“And be quiet.”_

_Her first B.B. gun had been a present for her fifth birthday. Seven years later, her dad took her on her first real hunt and had found out that being quiet and paying attention just wasn’t her thing._

_They crouched behind some shrubs overlooking a clearing and her dad pointed at the young buck that was right in the perfect spot. It was as if something had dropped it there for the sole purpose of her making her first kill._

_“Take a deep breath, aim, don’t look it in the eyes, then shoot…”_

_Penny nodded and steadied her rifle. Breathed in. Aimed for the lungs._

*

Her old job used to be delivering nachos and chicken fingers to customers. She wasn’t really any good at that job and she knew it. But the job she had now, she was damn good at it. Of course, there were no paychecks or health insurance in her new job but the better she was at doing it the more likely it was she would live to see another sunrise.

“Sheldon… wouldn’t you say this is one thing I’m better than you at for sure?”

He fired another round from his shotgun and then glanced at her sideways. “Is this really the appropriate time for this discussion?”

She had a handgun in each hand and with four quick headshots took out the last zombies in the group. Penny tucked her weapons back into the holster on her hips and then turned to Sheldon with a grin. “It’s always an appropriate time for this discussion. I mean, you did see what I just did there. Didn’t even break a sweat either.”

Sheldon kept his weapon at his side as they walked down the middle of the street together. “As you know, my total count of zombie kills is far higher than yours.”

“Because you inflated the numbers.”

“I did not.”

“Grenades don’t count.”

“Tell that to the zombies.”

Penny tilted her head and glared at him as Sheldon continued. “That’s sarcasm, you know. You can’t actually tell zombies anything. They don’t have the cognitive function to listen and decipher language anymore.”

“Yes, Sheldon, I know…”

She was just about to launch in the same argument they’ve been having for over two years about her marksmanship when she stopped in her tracks at what sounded like a man’s voice.

“Hey, do you hear that?”

He nodded and they crept forward together inspecting the abandoned buildings on either side of them for the source. Penny kept her hands at her hips, ready to draw her weapons if necessary.

Sheldon stopped after a couple minutes and directed Penny’s attention to the alleyway across from them with a nod of his head. “What kind of an idiot runs in to an alley with no exit?”

Penny spotted two small figures attempting to climb the fence at the end of the alley and a half-dozen zombies right on their heels. She sighed loudly and grabbed her guns again. “The kind of idiots we’re always saving. Let’s get this over with.”

They checked their ammunition quickly and then ran towards the alley. It took them hardly any time at all to dispatch a group of the undead this small. It was almost too easy for a couple of seasoned pros like they had become.

The two guys they had saved were still clinging to the fence even as the last body had fallen to the concrete. Penny cleared her throat and spoke first, “You two can come down now. The big kids took care of your problem for you.”

They started to carefully climb off the fence and when one of them turned to face her Penny had to take a step backwards to steady herself. “No way.”

“Leonard? Howard?” Sheldon did not sound happy to see them. Surprised, but not happy. “I guess I shouldn’t be shocked that you two would run into an alley and certain death. You’re lucky we came along.”

This was no reunion in which people ran to each other in slow motion and embraced. They were two pairs separated by a pile of bodies and a lot of silence. Penny looked at her watch and then towards the three men. “Sunset is in twenty. We better get going.”

She turned and started walking away but when only Sheldon followed, she paused and looked back at the other two. “Are you two coming or not?”

Howard punched a still stunned Leonard in the arm and the two stepped around the bodies of their attackers to follow Sheldon and Penny. No one spoke the entire walk to their hideout, but Penny had about a billion different questions pass through her head on the way there. All of that would have to wait for now.

They reached their destination just as the sun was dipping out of view and Penny lead them through what used to be a dry cleaning business and into an apartment in the back.

Howard spoke first as he looked around at the place. One bedroom, a futon in the living room and the rest of the empty space filled with supplies. “This is where you guys are living?”

Sheldon started lighting candles and answered quickly, “Only when we can’t get back to our truck by sunset.”

Penny lit the kerosene lamp on the small dining table and picked up where Sheldon left off, “We have a safer and larger house we’ve been staying at a little outside of Bakersfield. But tonight, we’ll all stay here.”

She grabbed one of the shotguns off the table and pointed it at Howard first. “First though, you need to take your clothes off. Both of you.”

Howard went paler than normal and swallowed loudly before replying, “I’ve imagined you telling me to take my clothes off before, but never like this, Penny.”

“We have to check you for signs of infection. Bites, marks, the usual.”

Howard quickly got to work and removed his jacket. He no longer wore the tight pants and crazy colors she remembered. Practicality had given way to jeans, t-shirts and jackets or hoodies on cooler days for most survivors.

Leonard hesitated as he took off his hoodie. “We’re not infected.”

“Just take them off, Leonard. Everything but your underwear. I’ve seen it all before. At least you anyway.”

Sheldon stepped forward and kept a safe enough distance as he walked around and inspected Howard. “We have absolutely no desire to ogle either of you. This is just a precaution as we’ve brought people in who didn’t even know they were infected. It never ends well.”

Howard was already down to his tighty-whiteys but Leonard still had his eyes focused on the barrel of the gun. “Could you at least not point that thing at me while I do this?”

Penny cringed and put the shotgun behind her on the table again. “Sorry, bad habit.”

Leonard finally complied and once they were quickly satisfied that neither man was going to turn into a zombie in the middle of the night, they got dressed again. Penny grabbed a couple of bottles of water from a case on the counter and handed them out.

“Well, make yourselves comfortable. At least for the night.”

Leonard took the water and looked around at the apartment. Non-perishable food items stacked in one corner and weapons stacked in another. “And we’re safe here?”

“Safe as we can be. Nothing gets in or out without us hearing it.”

“Okay then, I guess my first question is –“ Howard started to sit on the end of the futon but got quickly interrupted by a well-timed ‘ahem’ from Sheldon.

“That’s my spot.”

“Seriously? Still?”

Penny laughed softly and it was the first time she had cracked a smile since running into their friends in the alley. “Some things never change.”

Howard shrugged and slid over to the middle seat and suddenly she was reminded of things like Halo night and sharing a pizza during a Star Trek marathon. It all felt like a million years ago and she wondered why it didn’t hurt her heart more to think about it. Maybe too much had changed since then.

Sheldon and Leonard took the seats on each side of Howard and Penny grabbed a chair from the dining table to sit on Sheldon’s side of the room.

Silence fell like a ton of bricks. It had been over two years since they had seen each other, since the evacuation, and no one knew quite where to start.

Leonard spoke first after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, “It’s been a really long time.”

“We thought you were dead.” Living through an apocalypse had made Penny lose whatever filter she once had.

“We kind of thought you guys were too.”

Sheldon replied with disdain, “I’m not sure why. Between my intellect and cunning and Penny’s brutishness, as well as both of our abilities when it comes to shooting a weapon, it shouldn’t be a surprise that we’re here at all.”

Before the world ended, she would have objected to the remark about her being a brute, but in this new world, it was actually a compliment.

“Sheldon was even more prepared for this than you guys know.”

The days sometimes bleed together and so many of them are the same as the day before them. But she remembers that day as clearly as if it happened yesterday.

*  
 _Knock knock knock._

“Penny.”

_Knock knock knock._

“Penny.”

_Knock knock knock._

“Penny.”

She whipped the door open quickly, still a little breathless from what she had been watching on her TV. “Sheldon, this can’t be real, can it?”

He handed her a piece of paper with numbers written on it. “I need you to drive me to these coordinates right now.”

“Huh?”

Sheldon huffed in frustration, “It’s a storage unit on Fair Oaks and California Boulevard. Now please?”

“But… the evacuation… and the other guys… and…”

“I’ve already sent the GPS coordinates to Leonard’s cell phone. They’ll meet us there. Put your shoes on and get your keys.”

Penny looked at him in confusion for a moment before turning around to grab a pair of sneakers. If anyone knew how to escape an impending apocalypse, she’d have to guess it would be Sheldon.

She drove as fast as she could to the storage unit and for once Sheldon didn’t complain about her darting in and out of lanes or not using her turn signal. Traffic was already piling up as the news had just begun to alert those in the Los Angeles area to evacuate towards the north or south.

They arrived at his storage unit and Penny was rather impressed with the size and order of it. Each shelf had a sign and contained various duffle bags filled with supplies. Sheldon began quickly loading things into her car as she read off the labels, “Meteor, two categories of block out the sun and massive tidal wave, superdisease, alien invasion, nuclear holocaust, velociraptors, Skynet, zombies and judgment day?”

“Each potential apocalypse requires a different set of supplies. I’m just trying to be as prepared as possible.”

“Why does the judgment day shelf only have a Bible and nothing else on it?”

Sheldon hoisted a bag on to his shoulder and shrugged nonchalantly. “In case my mother is actually right.”

Penny nodded and grabbed another bag off the zombie apocalypse shelf to put in her trunk. “What is all this stuff anyway?”

“Some food and water, medical supplies, weapons and ammunition. Enough to last until we can obtain more or until we reach safety.”

“Weapons?”

Sheldon grabbed a rifle out of the trunk and handed it to her. “You know how to shoot, right?”

Penny instantly remembered the feel of it in her hand. Most of her shooting lately had been paintballs, but she was sure it would all come back to her when the time came. “Of course. Came in first in the whole county. You?”

“I’ve shot at more beer cans than I care to admit to.”

Sheldon’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he read the message with a frown. “It’s Leonard. He says they’re trapped on campus behind military barricades and can’t get out. They’re hearing something about a quarantine.”

Penny threw the last bag in the back seat and looked across the roof of the car towards Sheldon. “We can’t just leave them behind.”

“We don’t have a choice. There’s no way to get to them and we can’t stay here forever.”

“Then what do we do?”

Sheldon seemed to be pondering it and then dashed off a quick message on his phone, typing as fast as his fingers would allow him. He hit send and then got into the passenger seat as Penny joined him inside the car.

“I told him we’d turn on phones on for an hour per day. Yours at noon for thirty minutes and mine at midnight for thirty minutes. As soon as they can get out of town, we’ll find them.”

“You really think we’ll see them again?”

Sheldon, who always told her the truth, who never hesitated to be blunt, stammered over his response, “Yes, yes, I do.”

She knew he was lying.

*

“You guys know how it went. We heard from you every day for the first couple weeks. Then nothing for a few weeks and after that we had no signal and no battery power. We thought – well you can imagine what we thought.”

Leonard adjusted his glasses and sat further back in his seat with a sigh. “We never expected to see you guys again either.”

Sheldon asked the next question. “How did you escape? We’ve heard stories from other survivors about how the evacuation fell apart. Civilians were rioting, getting mowed down in the streets by the military.”

“It’s all true. We were just lucky. That and Leslie Winkle saved our asses.”

“Leslie Winkle? That woman is hardly –“

Howard interjected quickly to keep Sheldon from revisiting that old rivalry, “She knew a way out that wasn’t blocked. She also had a car and a handgun in her purse. She stayed with us at first but then split off to go find her mom in San Diego.”

Sheldon must have been reading her mind because he said exactly what she was thinking, “And how did you two manage to survive? You have limited physical prowess and even I have to admit that education and intellect only carries you so far in an apocalyptic world.”

Leonard sort of squinted at him before plainly admitting the truth, “We were lucky. Just really lucky. We managed to travel some areas that were had less of the infected. Our luck almost ran out today, until you two showed up.”

Howard continued, “Speaking of, we’ve heard stories too. A man and a woman who were travelling together, saving people and hunting zombies like it was their job. We definitely didn’t think it was you two. Then I saw you guys today and -”

“I don’t know that it is us,” Penny said with a shrug.

“People said it was a blonde woman who shoots with both hands and a tall brainy guy who sometimes takes samples from the undead.”

Penny and Sheldon shared a brief look and she nodded slightly. “That’s us.”

She didn’t want to talk about how they had become those people, at least not tonight, but she didn’t want to ask the question that had been really gnawing at her since the second she saw them on that fence.

Once again Sheldon seemed to pick up on those thoughts and he asked darkly, “And Raj? Where is Raj?”

Howard looked down at the floor and refused to meet their eyes so Leonard spoke quietly, “About seven months in, we were camping up in the hills and we woke up to an attack in the middle of the night. We never even saw him during the attack, so we don’t know if he ran or got dragged away or –“

Leonard’s voice trailed off and Penny had to swallow the own lump in her throat before she could breathe again. It wasn’t that they didn’t have time to be emotional about things like this. They had all the time in the world. But she knew if she got emotional about Raj, it would just spiral into thoughts about everything and everyone that they had lost.

She gave herself a minute every day to think about it before moving on. It wasn’t praying as it was hard to believe anyone was answering prayers anymore. It was just an acknowledgement of what they had loss and what they could still stand to lose. Sometimes she saw a similar look in Sheldon’s eyes and she knew he was taking a moment to think about his own family and what their fate might have been.

They sat there in the quiet for a few minutes before Penny jumped up and took control. “There’s plenty of food if you guys are hungry. One of you can sleep on the futon and the other – there’s a sleeping bag and some pillows in that closet there. If you hear anything out of the ordinary, we’ll be in the bedroom back here.”

Leonard raised his eyebrows higher than she had ever seen them go before. “Together?”

Sheldon had already stood and walked near the bedroom door while Penny had been giving directions, but he paused to answer Leonard’s doubt. “I’ve had to relax many of my old habits in order to make life easier. That includes sharing a room with another person. One can hardly be finicky when in the midst of an apocalypse.”

“That’s not what I –“

“Now, you two sleep well, we have a very busy morning ahead of us before we take you out to the farmhouse.”

Leonard stood there slack-jawed but Penny could hear Howard mutter “What the hell?” as Sheldon closed the door.

Penny started stripping off her clothes down to her underwear and spoke quietly so they wouldn’t overhear her. “This is weird, isn’t it?”

“I suppose.”

“But good, right?”

“I suppose.”

Sheldon had removed his own clothes and slid in to the bed next to Penny. She rolled on to her side to face him and let her hand rest on his arm. All of the walking and running and training they did to stay agile had turned them both into athletes and Penny glided her fingers over the sinewy arms that used to be so skinny and gangly.

“So what do we do with them?”

“Let them stay at the farmhouse for a while, maybe show them a few things we’ve learned and then…”

Penny sighed and curled into him so that her head was on his shoulder. “It’s not like with the others. They’re not strangers. These are our friends.”

Sheldon wrapped his arms around her and this was one of the few times of day that she ever felt truly safe. “We’ll figure it out in a few days. Just sleep.”

She sighed again and Sheldon kissed the top of her head as she shut her eyes and tried to shut off her brain. There was still part of her that was the perky waitress and wannabe actress she used to be, and she knew Sheldon still held on to parts of his old life as well, but everything had changed so much since those days. Just because Leonard and Howard were here now didn’t mean they could change the way they operated and that was going to be a problem.

Her sleep was hardly dreamless that night. She was always haunted by memories and faces. Her father’s words about never looking your prey in the eyes had always stayed with her so when she took down the infected she never looked them in the eyes. They acted like animals now but they were once just like her, people with families and hopes and dreams. So she aimed for the forehead every single time to avoid looking them in the eyes. But that didn’t stop their faces from flooding her dreams every night.

The next morning she felt like she had barely slept at all, but she never really slept well when they had to stay in the city. The infected liked to stick to city streets more than the rural areas so she always felt safer at the farmhouse.

They cleaned up and dressed quickly, making sure that Leonard and Howard were ready to go when they were. She didn’t like the idea of splitting up but she knew it would be faster if they did, so Penny took Howard and Sheldon took Leonard. Penny decided that if Leonard was going to ask any awkward questions, she’d let Sheldon field them today.

They were halfway through their supply run when the questions started up again. “So do you two always travel like this?”

“Like what?

“Just the two of you.”

“We didn’t always. But, now, yes. It’s just easier.”

She stopped looking at the canned food on the shelf when she saw the odd look on Howard’s face, “Easier? How?”

“Listen, we help people when we can. We know we’re good at this and we’ve survived this long because of that. But we can’t – we can’t be responsible for other people. It’s – it’s too much.”

Howard nodded in understanding and she could tell he was probably wondering if he and Leonard would get cut loose like all the others had. She couldn’t even answer that question yet if he had asked it.

There were reasons why it was just the two of them, damn good ones too. And if she had to tell Howard why, maybe it would make her feel less guilty when they eventually parted.

*

She remembers hearing the explosion from blocks away, a loud boom that rattled her eardrums. It wasn’t unusual for things like that to happen nor was it unusual to see smoke in the sky.

The part that sticks with her the most is the smell of fire. From a distance they could smell the wood and plaster walls of the house burning, but when they got closer it only got worse. She had hoped it was another house but when she turned the corner, all hopes were quickly dashed.

Sheldon was at her side already and she instinctively clutched his arm with her fingers.

“We shouldn’t have left them.”

“Penny, we had no way of knowing.”

Something had happened while she and Sheldon were out foraging for medical supplies. Most likely an attack that had somehow escalated into an explosion. They had kept gasoline in the garage for her car, enough to cause this, but it was unusual for the infected to attack during the daytime in numbers large enough for this kind of mess.

“One of us should have stayed behind. None of them were capable enough with weapons to defend the group against a big crowd. We could have stopped this.”

“Maybe. But one of us could be dead too.”

Penny couldn’t look at the fire anymore so she turned around and looked across the street, the smell of smoke still filling her nostrils. “Do you think any of them got out?”

She gripped his arm tighter and Sheldon exhaled slowly before answering, “I don’t think so.”

“Sheldon. There were children in there. We should have done more. We – we should have been more careful.”

He had never been good at comforting someone or showing that he cared even when he did. But this time Sheldon gently removed the hand that was still clutching his arm and slipped it into his own hand. For the first time since this all began, she let herself cry in front of Sheldon as they walked away and left everything behind.

They walked until their feet were blistered and cracked and a few days later stumbled upon the small pickup truck that became their main transportation after that.

After that they didn’t let themselves get attached to other survivors. They’d help them out with food, shelter or first aid for a few days at the most, then either tell them to move on or Sheldon and Penny would leave at the crack of dawn without saying a word. They agreed that it was better that way, for everyone involved. But there were times when Penny had doubts.

*

“When was that?”

“Almost five months after the evacuation. We lost fourteen people in that explosion and I – we – we just couldn’t do that again.”

They had been walking back to the truck while she told him the story and Howard stopped for a moment to give her a worried look. “Is that what you’re going to do to us eventually? Just cut and run or tell us to hit the road?”

Penny shifted the box of supplies in her arms uncomfortably and shook her head. “No, of course not. Things are different now. Better.”

She lied and she figured Howard probably knew it too. They hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. If Howard did know she was lying, he didn’t act like it. Maybe he just wanted it to be true.

They made it back to the truck before Sheldon and Leonard and she carefully stacked what they had gathered in the bed then took a seat on the open tailgate to wait.

“Can I ask you a less serious question?”

“Sure, go for it.”

“Sheldon. In jeans? And a leather jacket? How the hell did you manage that?”

Penny laughed because she had been more than a little pleased at that development. “I wish I could take all the credit, but practicality wins that one. It says zombie hunter much more than t-shirts or plaid. I see you’ve changed your style too, Howard.”

“I found out pretty early on that running in those pants was really… well, it chafed in uncomfortable places.”

“Gotcha.”

Another ten minutes passed in silence as they waited together. Penny had noticed a common thread linking every survivor she had met in the past couple years. People really didn’t talk about death. Loved ones who hadn’t survived or whose fates were unknown got mentioned in anecdotes about the past, but never acknowledged as dead or infected. Asking about Raj the night before had seemed like a necessity, but it was always a conversation that was quickly swept away. She didn’t ask Howard what had happened to his mother or to Bernadette and he didn’t ask about her family. Not that she knew where they were or if they were even alive at all anyway.

“It’s been a while. Aren’t you worried about Sheldon?”

Penny shrugged and looked down the quiet empty street with a smile. “I never worry about Sheldon. He can take care of himself. Leonard, on the other hand… I don’t know.”

She could practically sense the words resting on the tip of Howard’s tongue. The question, really. The one about her and Sheldon and how they ended up sleeping in the same bed every night. Penny has learned to sense even the slightest movement out of the corner of her eye so when she saw Howard’s jaw twitch, she jumped off the tailgate and interrupted before he could even get the first syllable out.

“I think I left something upstairs. There are guns in that toolbox just in case, and if you see anyone who isn’t Sheldon or Leonard, shout and I’ll hear you.”

“Uhm, okay, but –“

She moved so fast she didn’t even hear the rest of his sentence. Penny is back in the apartment as quick as her legs will carry her and she stood in middle of the front room enjoying the total quiet and stillness for just a moment.

A moment alone is a rarity these days, a special gift to savor when that time comes because you know it will not last. Being alone means having no one there to watch your back and being alone for too long means certain death.

She took a long slow breath in and closed her eyes as she exhaled. They’ve never had to explain their relationship to others they’ve met along the way, but now that people who knew them before the infection are here, all she can think to say is that it’s complicated.

But the truth is, it was the least complicated thing that’s ever happened to her.

*

It was seven months after they left Pasadena and not one of their better days, if there is such a thing as a ‘better’ day anymore. They were out of gas and on an empty road surrounded by desert with no time to walk to a gas station before nightfall.

So they take turns keeping watch while the other sleeps, both of them hunched up in opposite corners of the truck bed. Sheldon volunteered for first watch and he must have thought she was already asleep because he jumped in surprise when she nudged his foot with her own.

“You’re supposed to be asleep.”

“I know, but –“

“What?”

Penny pulled her jacket closed and hesitated before she spoke again. “I was just wondering – or thinking – that I’m probably the last person you wanted to end up with at the end of the world.”

Sheldon sat up a little straighter and stared back at her for a moment before speaking to her as if he was explaining a complicated math problem. “First, it is not technically the end of the world. The world is still here, as are we. Second, I must say without hesitation that I prize your skill with weapons and prize your efficiency as a survivalist.”

“Oh. Well, I’m glad you think I’m efficient. I guess.”

“I’m not finished. Third, and perhaps most importantly of all, though I am not one to express emotions or to spend time on declarations of friendship, I must say that since I met you several years ago, your general existence has become more –“

He hesitated so Penny finished with a grin, “Endearing?”

Sheldon paused to consider her word choice and then nodded slightly. “I suppose so. What I’m attempting to say is that I can think of no better person to be my companion in this situation. Aside from perhaps Batman, but Batman is a fictional character, so that’s just not possible.”

Penny was smiling now and she nudged his foot again before replying, “Cool. I’m glad I rank just behind Batman. I can live with that.”

Things were different after that. He didn’t initiate things, but he also didn’t back away, not when she wanted to hold his hand or throw her arms around him after a particularly bad day. When they ended up taking shelter in a place with only one bed, they no longer took turns sleeping on the floor. He let her sleep next to him and if she rolled over in the morning and planted a kiss on his jaw, he never protested.

That was just the beginning.

*

The silence was broken by what sounded like Sheldon preparing to tear Leonard into several small pieces. Sheldon rarely yelled when he was angry, he usually just scoffed or expressed his disagreement at a slightly elevated level of volume.

This could not be good at all.

Penny ran back outside as fast as she could and shouted immediately, “HEY! Do you want to wake up every zombie in Bakersfield? Stop it!”

“Zombies don’t sleep.”

Howard interjected curiously, “They don’t?”

“They have no need for it. We’ve seen them lay down but never sleep.”

“That’s fascinating.”

Penny had both hands on her hips and snarled at all three of them, “Hey! Sheldon! What the hell is going on to get you this angry?”

He looked towards Leonard who resembled a turtle about to crawl back in to his shell and then back to Penny. “It’s amazing that Leonard has survived as long as he has, quite honestly. He practically painted a sign that said, ‘Zombies, please enter here and eat at the physicist buffet.’ Do not make me take him out just the two of us ever again because if the zombies don’t kill him, I may have to.”

Leonard looked like he was getting scolded by a parent and attempted a stuttered apology, “I – I’m sorry, I just – I wasn’t thinking.”

He was looking at Penny as he said it but she just shook her head and stopped him, “Don’t apologize to me. I’m not your mother so I don’t care.”

Leonard looked back to Sheldon who just glared icily back at him. “Sheldon, I’m –“

“You and Howard ride in the bed of the truck. I’ll drive with Penny up front.”

Sheldon didn’t wait for a response and just headed over to the driver’s side of the truck. Penny could hear Howard say in surprise, “He drives now?”

Penny opened the passenger door and called out before she got in, “A lot can change in two years, guys.”

She got inside the truck and saw that Sheldon was still fuming even as he started the truck and began driving towards the highway.

“I don’t know what happened back there and frankly, I don’t care, but I’m sure Leonard didn’t mean to do whatever it was.”

“Yes, that’s true. He was just being careless. But you know we can’t afford that kind of carelessness.”

“I know. But you have to cut him a little slack. From what I can tell they’ve basically been hiding instead of fighting – he doesn’t know what we know.”

“Perhaps.”

Penny sighed and reached out her hand to brush his thigh with her fingers. He would get over his anger soon enough, but he was right, if Leonard wasn’t going to use his brain, they weren’t going to keep him around and let him risk all of their lives.

She had been careless once and that was the last time she let that happen.

*  
The exact details of how it happened were a complete blur, probably a result of the head injury. They were staying in the city that night and she left Sheldon asleep in an upstairs apartment while she went down to get a bottle of aspirin out of the truck.

She nearly died for a couple of Tylenol.

They came out of nowhere, at least a dozen of them, and they were on her so fast she was sure she was about to be torn apart. But she hadn’t been entirely stupid and had kept her guns close at hand. She worked quickly, never looking them in the eyes, as she took them down one by one.

The last two grabbed at her and she hit her head on the cold metal edge of the truck. Her vision started to blur but she breathed in and fired off two more shots as she fell to the ground and the darkness consumed her.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when she woke up and was back in the upstairs apartment. It felt very much like she had been hit in the head with a brick but at least she was breathing. Penny felt a warm hand wrapped around hers and she opened her eyes to Sheldon wearing an expression she had never really seen before. It looked like concern mixed with love, but of course that may have just been her imagination.

“Sheldon…”

“Penny, don’t you ever do that again.”

It hurt to speak and it even hurt to blink but she tried to rasp out an apology, “I’m sorry – I –“

“You weren’t thinking. You were being careless. But that is the last time. You don’t go outside at night without backup ever again, and I won’t either. I – I woke up and you were gone.”

“They – they just came out of nowhere – and –“

He had become less pale after all the time they spent outdoors these days, but in that moment he was even paler than he had been the day they met.

“I went outside and you were on the ground in a pool of your own blood with a dozen zombies lying around you.”

“So I got them all?”

“Yes, but, that’s not the point. You looked – you looked dead and I thought I had –“

That’s when she knew it, that he was trying to tell her he loved her and didn’t want to lose her. Not in the way that it happens in the movies, but in his own way.

So Penny just smiled even though it hurt to move every part of her face. “Sheldon, I love you too.”

He stopped, slightly dumbstruck by the moment, then just squeezed her hand and nodded.

*

They made it to the farmhouse within 45 minutes and Sheldon started unpacking the supplies while Penny gave the tour to the newcomers. It was a comfy four bedroom house which meant a lot more space and a lot more privacy. There was even a large barn outside where they could stockpile supplies.

Everyone was settled in by dark and Sheldon, who was by far the best cook in the group, did his best to make a decent meal out of the supplies they had. They even had a wood stove that could heat up things. Penny could tell by the way they devoured the food, it was the closest thing to real food that Leonard and Howard had eaten in a while.

Leonard offered to clean up the mess, perhaps as a peace offering for his earlier screw up. So while Leonard was picking up their plates, Howard wiped his mouth with his napkin and cleared his throat before deciding to bring up a new topic of conversation.

“So, were you guys just planning on staying here forever? You’ve got a great Little House on the Prairie vibe going on, but what if –“

“What if? Really? What if? What else is out there? Being here is the safest we’ve felt in over two years. Where else would we go?”

Sheldon didn’t move as Penny spoke, he just watched her look at Howard in confusion.

“Well – back when – before the outbreak got widespread, I heard rumors about them working on a cure or a vaccine or something. Bernadette said one of her professors got called to Nevada to work on a special project. Area 51, probably. If there’s information that the government knows that no one else does, that’s where you’d find it. We’ve been talking for a while now, about going there.”

This piqued Sheldon’s curiosity instantly. He had taken samples and run his own tests on the zombies they had taken down over the years. But his knowledge of biology and virology was not as expansive as his knowledge of other subjects, and with limited equipment at his disposal he hadn’t been able to find out enough.

Penny could see the wheels turning in his head, he was thinking that a real lab with real scientists meant maybe there was hope for a future after all. She put her hand on his knee under the table and looked back at Howard.

“We don’t do the ‘what if’ game around here. It’s not practical. And it just – it can make you go crazy.”

“Penny.”

“No, no, no. We have a life here.”

“Penny.”

She continued to ignore him and shook her head, even though she knew that what they had was only barely a life. “No, Sheldon, no. We could go all the way out there and find nothing, and the further we go in to unknown territory, the more danger we put ourselves in.”

“Penny. We need to think about this before we say no.”

Penny stood up and the only sound was the scraping of her chair across the wood floor. Even Leonard paused his work in the kitchen, a dirty dish in one hand and a towel in the other.

She looked at each man before she left the room and went upstairs. Maybe they were right and she was wrong on this one, she didn’t really know. She just didn’t want it to change for the worse.

*

It was the one year anniversary of the day they left Pasadena, but neither of them mentioned it all day long. It wasn’t that they didn’t know, it just seemed an odd kind of anniversary to mark. Not having a near death experience in the past ten weeks seemed like a better thing to celebrate to Penny.

They were parked in a field outside of Bakersfield in a town called Wasco. They could see around them in every direction and there was enough obstacles that they would hear it if something was coming at them. These days the infected mostly stuck to the larger cities anyway so they felt safe for the time being.

Sheldon had spread blankets in the bed of the truck and let Penny curl up into him for extra warmth. For a moment she forgot all about what their lives were really like. This reminded her of a cool summer night back in Nebraska when teenagers used to go out and lay in a field under the stars. She had been one of those teenagers back then and she could remember some good times in the back of a truck with some boy.

“You look happy.”

Sheldon interrupted her moment of nostalgia so Penny tilted her head to look in his eyes. “I’m just remembering something.”

“Something you lost?”

“Something I thought had lost, but I guess I didn’t.”

“This may require an explanation.”

Penny put her hands on the side of his face and gave him a kiss filled without enough meaning to explain exactly what she was thinking. They had become more intimate lately, especially since she survived the attack, but they had yet to fully consummate things. When survival was your number one priority other things fell by the wayside.

Sheldon must have understood because he actually made the move in that direction before she did, peeling off her jacket and then going to work on the t-shirt she wore underneath.

He fumbled in places and Penny would laugh softly when he struggled with her bra clasp. She knew he could tell she wasn’t mocking him, but that she was having fun. Even as they strained to find a comfortable position, she smiled.

Sheldon was inexperienced but determined and gentle with her. As he steadily moved inside her, she planted kisses on his bare shoulder and her body was reminded how much she had missed this. Both the sex and the intimacy.

But there was more to it than just that. She had with Sheldon something that she hadn’t had before. Penny had a partner, a friend, a person who she could trust with her life (and did every single day).

Even as they lay there afterwards, she realized she hadn’t felt this kind of contentment in far too long. With no society, they had no pressure to put labels on things or use words like boyfriend or girlfriend. They didn’t have to worry about old jealousies (or new ones) or opinions from family members about who they chose to fall in love with. They could just exist this way forever.

She laid her head on his shoulder while Sheldon planted a soft kiss on her forehead and sighed. Penny glanced up at the stars and let her mind wander.

She wondered what would have happened if there had been no infection, no evacuation, just life going on as they had known it before. Would the obnoxious uptight unromantic physicist and the flighty wannabe actress ever have gotten it together and figured out how right this really was? Would there have been a modest house near the campus where Sheldon was running his department but close enough for Penny to go to her job as the fifth billed actress on some silly procedural show? Could they have had a little girl with his eyes, her smile, his love of science and her appreciation for Hello Kitty?

Penny let herself bask in this fantasy for a few minutes before looking back at Sheldon. His eyes were closed and she saw the hint of a smile on his lips. She was happy, as happy as one could be in this crazy and dangerous life, and she knew it was useless to dwell on ‘what if’. So she made a promise to herself to be happy with what she had now and not to dwell on what could have been or what could be.

*

She didn’t even know how long she had been sitting on the edge of the bed when Sheldon came upstairs and cautiously sat next to her.

“Penny…”

She gave him that look, the one she had been using for years to tell him how very annoying he could be. This time she knew she was probably being irrational, but she didn’t really care.

“No.”

“You need to think about this logically before you make up your mind.”

“That’s your job.”

“I’m not going without you.”

“Sheldon – we’re okay here. We’re the best we’ve been in a long time. What do you expect to find out there?”

“Answers.”

She exhaled slowly and looked at the expression on his face. It wasn’t that she wasn’t enough for him. He just couldn’t sit back and not try to solve things with science. He had spent the past two years trying to apply his intellect to the zombie problem but with no success. This was his chance to be in a place that could give him the answers he needed.

He wouldn’t leave without her, but he also wasn’t going to leave her alone until she decided to go.

“This is just happening way too fast for me. Leonard and Howard have only been here for a day and we’re already talking about leaving and… I don’t know. Can I have a week or maybe two weeks to think about this?”

“Of course you can.”

Penny gave him a weak smile and then leaned in to kiss the corner of his mouth. She knew deep down that going was probably the right thing to do. But she needed time to be sure before she took that risk.

*

The week passed with only a little talk of what could be in Nevada, mostly stories that Howard and Leonard had heard in their own travels and speculation based on Sheldon’s own ideas about what went on there.

Penny listened as closely as possible but when they got too far in to the science talk that she didn’t fully understand, she’d start replaying her favorite Sex and the City episodes in her head. God, did she miss electricity and DVD players.

They spent most of their afternoons teaching Howard and Leonard a few things about survival. They weren’t exactly taking to it like ducks to water, but Penny thought at least they might not get them all killed. Maybe.

On the fourteenth night, she was already in bed when Sheldon joined her and she felt his hand rest on her hip. He didn’t say anything but she knew he was waiting for her answer.

“You know, a couple weeks ago we were debating whether we were even going to keep Howard and Leonard around. Our friends. Our best friends. The only ones we have left in the world. And now you want to leave with them on some mission that might get all of us killed…”

“I know.”

Really, she already knew her answer, she just wanted to hear it out loud, to put it out there in the universe.

“Then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll go.”

“Really?”

She rolled over to face him and smiled. “You’ve had my back this whole time, and if you think this is the right thing to do then I trust you.”

“We continue to surpass expectations for survival and I believe we will again.”

Penny giggled and pulled his arm over her so that he was holding her. “Whatever you say.”

They left three days after that, as soon as Sheldon had mapped out the route including places they could likely siphon gas for the truck at. They took turns driving but always kept on the lookout for zombies that might have been roaming the highways.

Sheldon had also marked places where they could find shelter and food if necessary. The trip was over four hundred miles but they decided to break it up in to two days of driving so they would be fed and well rested for whatever might be waiting for them.

He had picked a route that kept them away from the bigger cities like Las Vegas hoping to avoid a horde of infected, and it worked. They spotted small groups occasionally but were able to avoid or eradicate them without much trouble at all.

Penny started to wonder if the rest of the country looked like this, quiet and empty. She even felt guilty for not getting in the car and driving to Texas to look for Sheldon’s family or Nebraska to look for hers. But ultimately they had done what they needed to do to survive and she didn’t want to get caught up in regrets again.

They arrived in the tiny town near Area 51 early the morning of the third day and Sheldon had already lectured them about how people could go see the warning signs outside the base, but they weren’t allowed further than that. If the military tried to stop them from getting in, it meant there were still people alive there, people who could help them. But if no one tried, then Penny didn’t even want to think about what that meant.

They stayed in their truck and drove up the dusty dirt road pass the signs that told them to stay out. She looked to the sky for the signs of a scary black helicopter. Then her eyes turned to the road for the black SUVs she had heard about and then men that would tell them to turn around.

No one came.

They reached the gate and no one was there. Sheldon drove through the gate with ease and all they saw were cars that hadn’t been touched in months, and on the other side an airstrip filled with vehicles and planes that hadn’t been touched either.

No one spoke. They all knew what it meant.

Sheldon drove up to the side of what looked like the main building and they all got out, weapons at the ready just in case. Penny checked the door and it was unlocked, but she looked back at the guys before opening it.

“Now what do we do?”

Howard looked from side to side and then back at her with the slightest of grins. “We go in there and find out where they’re keeping the UFOs.”

Leonard laughed and replied, “If we’re lucky we’ll find one that we can fly and find a more hospitable planet.”

Sheldon frowned at both of them and said with no hint of sarcasm, “That’s absurd. Putting aside the fact that it’s unlikely humans would be capable of flying a ship made with alien technology, we wouldn’t even know where to find a planet that is habitable for humans.”

All three stared at him wordlessly until Sheldon finally cracked a smile. “I’m making a joke.”

Penny laughed and gave him a quick wink before opening the door, making sure to point her gun in front of her just in case. A long hallway lay in front of them, cold and empty but still surprisingly well lit.

“They must have the greatest backup generators on earth.”

Howard was right behind her and she heard him mutter, “Now you know where our tax dollars went.”

She kept her eyes moving, looking for any signs of others, whether living, dead or undead. The building was like a maze of corridors and part of her wondered if the generators mean they had things like hot showers, televisions, music, television and all the trappings of a life she hadn’t seen in so very long.

Penny didn’t let her mind wander too far, just kept moving on. What felt like hours had probably only been minutes when she heard Sheldon call for them to stop from the back of the line.

Penny turned and looked behind her as Sheldon pointed at a small plaque on the wall. “Labs. This way.”

They followed him now, down another hallway, only pausing to read signs on the doors until Sheldon found exactly what he was looking for. The door was locked but Sheldon directed them all to stand back while he shot it open, creating a sound that echoed through the entire corridor.

Penny laughed uneasily and followed Sheldon in to the lab, “Well, if anyone is alive in here, they definitely heard that.”

She looked back at Howard and Leonard who looked completely out of place holding shotguns in their hands. “Guys, can you watch the hallway while we look around in here?”

Penny saw Leonard swallow hard like he was choking down a mouthful of sand. But he didn’t protest, just nodded and went out in to the hallway with Howard close behind. The door shut behind them and Penny figured if something happened, she’d hear gunfire or screaming or both.

Sheldon was already at one of the computers trying to pull up date that had been abandoned. The tables and lab equipment were covered in dust, but only a thin layer so there had to have been people here within the past few months.

She pulled a stool up next to him and watched charts and figures scroll by on the monitor. “Finding anything interesting?”

“Yes. I think they were actually on to a vaccine, as well as something to destroy the infected.”

“Destroy? As in kill?”

“They’re already dead. Even if you could cure them, they would die shortly afterwards. Their bodies are being kept mobile by the virus itself, without the virus, they wouldn’t even be capable of moving.”

Penny sat up as she thought she heard something in the hallway, but it went quiet again quickly so she figured she was just imagining it and went back to watching Sheldon at work.

“So if you can make a vaccine that means that there’s no chance we’d ever get infected, right?”

“Precisely.”

She didn’t even let herself celebrate the thought that it might be real. That maybe they would never have to kill another zombie, that they could find others just like them somewhere and start a brand new life without constant fear. It was far too good to actually be true.

Penny stood and walked around the rest of the lab as Sheldon continued to read through everything. Someone’s coffee cup was still sitting on the corner of a desk, notes scattered about as if they had just walked out of the room minutes ago. They had not found any bodies yet, human or zombie and she wondered what had made a whole base of people just pick up and leave so suddenly. Most of all she wondered where they might be now.

She didn’t have much time to think on it because she heard a gunshot from somewhere outside the room. Penny looked right to Sheldon who stood up immediately.

“Stay right there. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

He didn’t stay right there as she could sense him walking up behind her as she went to the door. Penny stepped in to the hall, her shotgun leading the way, and found it completely empty.

“What the hell… Leonard? Howard?”

She called out with no response but she could hear noises coming from the end of the corridor.

Penny ran towards the noise and when she turned the corner her feet slipped in something wet and she ended up flat on her back with the breath knocked out of her for a moment. She started to prop herself up and realized she had slipped in a puddle of fresh blood, the thought of which sent a chill through her.

The next moment was a blur as she felt hands pull at her legs. They were definitely not alone anymore. She tried to look for Sheldon but all she saw was the dead all around her, climbing over each other to get to her. So she fired, and kept firing, and in between shots she would scream for Sheldon and get no answer.

She was finally able to crawl away from them and launch herself into a standing position just as the wall near the lab was rocked with an explosion. Surely it had been Sheldon and one of his famous grenades. At least she knew that meant he was still alive. For now anyway. But still no sign of Leonard or Howard.

Penny continued dispatching the infected with expert aim, but didn’t realize she was taking steps backward each time she took one down. Not until she found herself backed in to a dead end.

A zombie wearing army fatigues was ambling towards her, far too close for comfort, and that’s when she looked into his eyes without even thinking to stop herself. There was still the hint of a pupil and iris, but they were mostly cold, dead and milky white.

Her hand shook as she fumbled to grab the gun that was on her hip, tossing aside her empty shotgun. She tried to take her gaze off of his eyes while she breathed in deeply, steadied her hand and aimed for the center of the forehead.

*

_“Take a deep breath, aim, don’t look it in the eyes, then shoot…”_

_Penny nodded and steadied her rifle. Breathed in. Aimed for the lungs._

_But the buck paused and turned his head and she couldn’t help but look directly into his brown eyes just as she pulled the trigger._

_The sound of the gun going off made her eardrums shake and she squeezed her eyes shut for just a moment._

_When she opened them again, the deer was gracefully bounding back in to the thick woods around them. Aside from being slightly spooked by the sound of her gun, she hadn’t harmed him at all._

_Penny stood up straight and turned to face her dad with a frown. “I’m sorry, dad.”_

_He gave her a smile and playfully yanked on the end of her pigtail. “It’s all right slugger, you’ll get the next one.”_


End file.
